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Monday, August 22, 2011

Konami Giveth and Konami Taketh Away(!?) Part 3

Semi-Limits aren't the most game changing reductions in Yugioh. There are actually a lot of people who don't think Semi-limits are worth implementing into the game at all. To those players, it extends a needlessly long Banlist into embarrassing numbers of cards and doesn't really punish players that lose 1 of their key pieces to their strategy. I believe that when Semi-Limiting a card from 3 to 2, it is designed to make cards with a powerful level of consistency slightly less consistent, without removing that cards usefulness to the game(i.e., Semi-limiting Debris Dragon or Destiny HERO - Malicious).

The list is different though as most of the cards on the list are formerly limited cards! So now players can enjoy using 2 of them in a deck until they are told otherwise.

Necro Gardna - Warrior Monster, Dark monster, and level 3. Those are some decent stats for Yugioh, if it had 500 ATK and was level 2, we would have a different story. As far as using it, Necro's only real purpose is to negate attacks, which it can only do once from the graveyard. There are many, many cards in the game that react to the opponent's attacks, so Necro Gardna's effect isn't anything new. Besides that, it is really only used in decks that can send cards from the deck to the graveyard, which is mostly Lightsworn Monsters. In lightsworns, I like to believe that Konami doesn't mind cool tricks like this while Lumina and, especially, Charge of the Light Brigade are limited to 1. Pretty balanced card effect, for now.

Summoner Monk - Once again, another card that was at 1. This guy however is slightly more dangerous with the advent of XYZ monsters. Summoner Monk can turn any spell card into an XYZ, so long as your opponent doesn't stop you. If you play Heavy Storm or MST, you are now down by 3 cards to your opponent's -2. Yes even though you put a 2500 or double Thunderking on the field, what exactly did it cost? Many decks don't even run Spell Cards that are Monk fodder except for Pot of Duality and Mystical Space Typhoon, further balancing its play. Want to include Genex Ally Birdman to the fray? It is a great combo that you can pull off a bit more consistently. Of course, all you need is a Monk, a Birdman, a Spell Card you don't mind pitching like Duality, and for your opponent to not Warning, Bottomless or Veiler your Arcanite or Blackrose dragon.

Tragoedia - This is one of the very few cards I disagree with changing. With Pot of Avarice gone(limited to 1), Tragoedia is a little less dangerous in late game Yugioh than in early game. The effect to permanently nab opponent's monsters was SLIGHTLY lessened by the fact that your opponent may Overlay their monsters into something with no level. Its effect to change its own level is slightly better now with XYZ monsters in your extra deck. I believe that these are all slightly fair effects with the amount of powerful monsters that exist. What makes Trag worse than Gorz is that Trag can't turn a duel around by itself. Your opponent could have an awesome field of Stardust Dragon, Steelswarm Roach and Junk Destroyer and lose it all to 1 Gorz.

Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier - Once again, (OCG) players found ways to abuse having 3 Dewloren and that was with Fishborg Blaster. With Fishborg gone, we now have Diva and Surface to make our triple Dewlorens. This strategy isn't as powerful, but it can still happen. Better just semi-limit the card now(again) before someone finds a new Dewloren loop.

Destiny Draw - Finally, everyone has been asking for 2 Destiny Draws and Konami is finally ready for you to have it. Why? No real reason I'm sure. It is probably because of new Hero support in GENF and rereleased cards in the Duel Academy Binder in October. Destiny Draw has no other stipulations besides running Destiny HERO monsters. You don't have to skip your battle phase or forgo special summons, you are free to do whatever you like. The only balancing feature of Destiny Draw is the fact that you have to run Destiny HERO monsters in the first place. Of those, the only ones that have good effects are:
Destiny HERO - Diamond Dude
Destiny HERO - Malicious
Destiny HERO - Dasher
Destiny HERO - Defender
Destiny HERO - Plasma
Destiny HERO - Fear Monger
None of those cards have solitary, game changing effects except for Plasma. All of the others require other cards to be useful. There are many low tier decks with draw engines like Boon of the Meklord Emperor and Red Dragon Vase. Decks have to have really good monster cards to limit their drawing options.

Swords of Revealing Light - With Mystical Space Typhoon bumped to 3 and Heavy Storm back AND Giant Trunade gone, Swords is even less of a liability for the opponent. Stall and burn decks can still win against just about anyone, but those high tier decks have to draw pretty poorly to be beaten by a Swords of Revealing Light + Stealth Bird combo. It is a card game however and luck will always be a factor. Perhaps bumping Swords up to 2 helps out our stalling brethren(as well as new players.)

Call of the Haunted - We all wanted Monster Reborn banned in this list. Instead, Konami gave us another Call of the Haunted. Sure, CotH takes a turn to play and it can only get your own cards. Also with as much as 2 additional backrow destroying cards, CotH is even less powerful. What makes CotH pretty cool is that any cards that benefit from being destroyed work very well as revival targets, turning your opponent's MST into a relative loss for them. Sangan and Dandylion don't mind being destroyed after reviving them, and neither do Wisel and Grannel in your hand. CotH also pumps up decks that originally run 1, like my new Wonder Wand deck. It will actually pump up a lot of lower level decks, while keeping High tier decks the same, simply because they never ran CotH in the first place. Just because we have 2 doesn't mean you will see it in every deck. Some people simply don't have room for 1-shot revival on their side of the field.

Mind Crush - Is a good card but will always be down to luck. Hitting the first(and now only!) Smoke Signal with Mind Crush is a great start to a duel. Having 2 in the deck makes these plays a little easier. You can also use it against Agents, Sangan, Nordics, Gravekeepers, and a few other decks, so long as they grab something that you can see. Until that happens, for most players, Mind Crush is a dead card on your field. If you feel like you are lucky, you can call Kagemusha after they special summon Elder. Unfortunately, they may have done Elder so they can Asceticism into Kagemusha instead. Now you lost 1 card and will probably lose the duel because you are down by 2 and they just gained a Shi En.

Hindsight - Not much else is worth semilimiting except for TCG exclusives. Specifically Tour Guide of the Underworld, which is seeing more play in decks than it probably should be. Of course there are plenty of limited cards that I would love to see at 2.
Advanced Ritual Art
Gale the Whirlwind
Necroface
Emergency Teleport


2 comments:

  1. I agree that both tour guide and teleport should be at 2. I'm surprised konami hasn't semi'd teleport with the psychic stuff recently.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I feel that there are decks that are only supposed to be so strong, no matter what cards come out.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for reading.